A Ballad for Her Cowboys (9 page)

‘After I what? You knew all about him last night. It didn’t bother you then.’

‘That’s because we thought it was over between you and him.’

‘It is over.’ Misty took a deep breath and Aiden guessed she just realized what Seth was getting at. ‘What, you see him here and just assume that I’m still with him?’

‘Wade seems to think you are,’ Aiden added, unsure Seth’s attitude was helping, but unable to stop the accusation slipping out. He gestured toward her flimsy robe. ‘Why exactly is that, Misty?’

‘I have no idea what kind of sleazy thoughts you are having about me, but you need to remember something. I was with the guy for years. It’s not like I have to be shy in front of him and anyway, I made him turn his back. Besides, what happens between Wade and me really isn’t any of your damn business.’

‘Oh, is that right?’ Seth asked. His tone a warning to anyone who knew him as well as Aiden did that he had a slim grip on his temper. ‘It is my business now.’

‘Why? Because you fucked me?’

Aiden winced, her words hit him like a slap in the face and caused him to take an involuntarily took a step toward her, but Seth got there first. His arm shot out, closed around her body, and he hauled her up against his chest. He forced her to stand on tiptoe, a firm hand holding the back of her head.

‘You know that’s not it,’ he muttered against her jaw and worked his lips closer to hers. ‘It’s more than just sex Misty and you know it.’

‘I know…I’m sorry,’ she whispered, lifting her head to look him in the eye.

Seth claimed her mouth and she sagged against him, letting her lush curves press into him as her arms wound around his neck. Aiden moved to stand behind her, trailing his hands over her shoulders, down her sides before grasping her hips, and pulling her back against the hard bulge forming in his pants as he watched her melt against Seth. Misty moaned and rubbed her ass against him, which let Aiden know that she welcomed his touch too.

He groaned, reached around her collarbone, and pulled her robe from her shoulders. It fell to the floor, revealing the white lace bodysuit she wore beneath. Aiden’s throat tightened at the thought Wade might have seen her in the tiny scrap of material. He wrapped the paper-thin wisps of silk holding it up around his fingers and tore them away. Misty fell back against his chest when he tugged the fabric covering her breasts down to her waist and filled his hands.

Looking down at her body over her shoulder, Aiden saw her nipples grow large from his touch, the hard pebbles pushing at his palms. He looked up to find Seth watching her reactions. Seth got up and turned to drag the chair a little closer. He dropped to his knees, reached down, grasped her ankle, and placed one of her legs up on the seat.

Aiden felt Misty begin to shake once Seth made his intentions clear. He took off his hat, throwing it across the room, and then put his hand between her thighs. The snaps at the crotch of her bodysuit made a popping sound as they were torn apart, and Aiden knew Seth had an eyeful of her. He raised his head, looking for somewhere better to do this, so he could see too, and found that they faced the mirror over her dressing table.

Seth pushed the bottom of her suit up, exposing the thick, dark curls covering her pussy, and then gave Aiden the sight he craved when Seth parted her slick lips with two careful fingers. Aiden moaned at the sight of her moist, rose-colored flesh, already swollen in arousal. Seth shifted to the side. He used one hand, spread down over her mound, to hold the lips of her pussy apart. He placed the tips of his fingers from his other hand on her clit and rubbed in slow circles.

Misty bucked against the sensation, grinding her ass harder against Aiden’s aching cock. He grunted and pushed back against her, forcing her cunt forward to accept Seth’s touch. She thrashed against him again when Seth moved his attention from her clit to her pussy. He looked up to see her reaction as he slid a finger inside her and smiled when he saw the shudder wracking her.

Aiden took a step back, supported her weight on his chest, and deepened the angle of her body where it rested between him and the chair. Seth dipped his head when her legs spread wider and blocked Aiden’s view in the mirror. He alternated between watching her writhing in the reflection or looking down at her splayed out beneath him. But it wasn’t enough.

‘Let me move you, darling,’ he whispered in her ear and pulled her away from Seth to lift her onto the dressing table. Seth shuffled around to resume sucking at her, his hands spreading her inner thighs while he buried his head into her groin. Misty leaned to one side and reached for Aiden, her hands fumbling when she tried to unbuckle his belt. He undid the buttons on his fly himself, but let her pull his engorged cock out of his pants, shuddering at the first touch of her hot hand.

She pulled at it greedily, tugging him closer with desperate jerks until she had him close enough to take into her mouth. Misty groaned and closed her eyes when her lips closed around him. Aiden braced his hands on the wall above the mirror and thrust in and out of her as gently as he could. Her small fist pumped in time with her mouth and drove him wild. Oh God, he wanted to push inside her so deep, but he held himself in check—at least until he heard her gasp and saw the ripple of her abdomen caused by Seth driving her crazy with his tongue.

He clenched his fists, forcing himself to hold still when the first hard pulse of semen surged its way up his shaft and into her hot mouth. His legs began to shake with the urge to lunge forward, but he managed to hold on. He gasped when she let his cock fall from her lips when her orgasm began. He grabbed his dick in a fist and jerked the last of his cum out onto the floor, his gaze locked on her.

Misty’s head fell back against the shiny tabletop. She seemed to lose the ability to support her weight. Aiden bent to kiss her, taking the sharp sting of her bite against his lip and the tug of her hands in his hair without complaint. She shuddered to completion and let go of his head just as the sound of Seth’s ragged breathing split the air. Aiden turned to see Seth come all over his own hand, slumping forward to support his weight on his free arm while he finished emptying his load.

Aiden staggered back to the wall and allowed himself to slide to the floor and catch his breath. He looked at Misty, still lying on the counter struggling to recover, her eyes closed, and then to Seth where he lay on his back, one arm thrown over his face and his cock still in his hand. The knowledge that they were all spent and exhausted from the mind-blowing sex that seemed to come so easily to them didn’t make him feel any better. Sex wasn’t the problem. It never had been.

Misty was the first to her feet and had just retied her robe when someone knocked the door. She rushed forward to drop the latch before calling out.

‘It’s me,’ they all heard Wade say.

‘I told you to wait for me in the bar!’ Misty shouted. ‘If you don’t get off my back, you can forget Nashville.’

Seth raised his head, looked at Aiden, and they both turned to look at her. ‘Nashville?’ Seth asked, getting to his feet, and straightening his clothing.

Aiden did the same and turned to her, angry that she still hadn’t answered.

‘Misty, you gotta give us some straight answers. What in the fuck is going on?’

She turned, grabbed a handful of tissues from a box on her dresser, looked about to get down, and clean up the evidence of their arousal. Seth stopped her and did it himself.

‘Wade found me a job—a good one. I’m heading straight there when I finish here tomorrow night.’

‘With him?’ Aiden asked, although he already knew the answer. She nodded. ‘Why?’

‘He arranged the whole thing, without my consent by the way represented himself as my agent and manager. I guess the local promoters remember that’s how we did things in the past, so they didn’t question it.’

Seth, confusion written plainly on his face, put up a hand to halt her chatter. ‘So you are working with him again. What makes you think he isn’t gonna run off with all your money like he did before?’

‘Because, I’m wise to him this time, Seth. I’ll get my cut up front and put it somewhere he will never find it.’

Aiden wasn’t buying it. ‘Why would you risk getting involved with someone like him again?’

‘It’s a great opportunity and more money than I’ve seen in a long time.’

‘Well, you might only be doing it for those reasons, but Wade’s got a much higher stake in this.’

Misty turned away, picked up her brush, and dragged it through her hair roughly. ‘Yes, I know. But what Wade wants and what he will get is two different things. I’m doing this for me. I made that much clear to him before I agreed.’

‘Then somebody didn’t get the memo because he was swaggering around here like he owns you,’ Seth said, leaning down beside to her meet her gaze in the mirror.

‘Nobody owns me.’

‘What if we asked you not to go?’

‘And do what instead—starve?’

Aiden had to stop Seth before he pushed her too hard. He could sense Misty wouldn’t take kindly to the Seth’s brand of persuasion. ‘You could work with us until something better came along—help us set up the business. We couldn’t pay you much of a wage, but you’d have all of your meals provided and a roof over your head.’

Misty smiled, trying to take the sting out of her words. ‘And what about my career? If I can’t sing, I may as well be dead. It’s the only thing that’s ever mattered to me.’

‘We could have a setup like this.’ Seth looked around, thinking out loud. ‘We’d have to get a little bit of money behind us first so we could refurbish one of the barns, but it could work.’

‘That’s not a bad idea, ‘Aiden said, catching Seth’s enthusiasm and turning to Misty. ‘Would you consider it then?’

She got to her feet, the sadness already in her eyes. ‘At any other time in the last couple of years, your offer couldn’t have made me happier, but not right now. This is a huge opportunity for me. Can’t you guys see that?’

Aiden did a better job of hiding his disappointment than Seth, but then he still hadn’t given up. ‘Okay, so once you’ve done this gig, you could come join us then.’

Again she didn’t react how he hoped. ‘Thing is, if things take off after this tour, I’ll be really busy, you know, promoting and stuff. Wade says…’

Her voice trailed off into a whisper when she looked into Aiden’s face, probably able to see he didn’t believe her. He would put everything he had on the odds of Wade spending every minute of his time with her trying to worm his way back in.

‘Are you rejecting the job or us?’

As usual, Seth cut to the chase, braver in some ways than Aiden could ever be.

‘I’m not rejecting anyone, just following my dream.’

‘And Wade’s a part of that dream?’ Seth asked.

‘Not in the way you think.’

Aiden didn’t need to hear anymore. ‘Then I hope get all you want from life, Misty. It obviously isn’t anything we can give you.’

‘That’s not fair. It’s not my fault this offer came when it did. If we’d met earlier then—’

‘Ah, but we did, remember. And as I recall, you ran away from us that time too.’

Aiden couldn’t regret causing the blush crawling over Misty’s cheeks. She needed to know that her actions had hurt them, not once but twice.

He turned and unlatched the door. ‘Come on, Seth. We’re in the way.’

Chapter 7

The tour bus rumbled to a stop at the back of a small theater about a hundred miles north of Nashville, and Misty got to her feet before the driver even opened the doors. Wade got up too. She wanted to scream at him to sit back down and give her some breathing room.

She couldn’t wait to get away from him. He worked her like a dog over the last two months, slotting extra gigs into her already hectic tour schedule. Being part of a touring show made things a little easier on her—a thirty-minute slot every other night didn’t wreck her throat or wear her out the way a full concert did. But Wade wasn’t the kind of guy to even consider the ramifications of putting strain on her voice, the very instrument that had made them money and saved his skin.

Just one more night
, she thought yet again. She’d clung to these words like a mantra for weeks, counting down the days until the tour ended. Not only because she would finally be free of Wade. Her future happiness depended on how things went tonight—and only if Aiden and Seth accepted her invitation.

She carried her bags up to the last hotel room she hoped she would see in a very long time. Thanks to Wade’s determination to come on tour and the fact the promoters would only cover the bill for one room, they had to share. Sure, she could have made him pay for his own, but she would only have had to reimburse him for it out of the substantial amount of money she saved.

Wade had been as good as his word—paying off his debt as soon as he could, although it left him broke. Misty didn’t mind too much that he’d kind of assumed she would ensure he got food, clean laundry, and somewhere to sleep. At least this time there was a reason for her to put up with his sense of entitlement.

She’d been able to at least insist on twin beds so it wasn’t as if he could try anything with her, even if she wanted him to—which she didn’t. It didn’t stop him asking though. But since the night in North Carolina a week or so earlier, when she’d told him she was in love with someone else, he’d stopped even trying. Misty refused to divulge any details, letting him believe it was one of the cowboys he met in Broken Jaw.

He handled her confession better than he did the news she would never tour again. Wade told her she lost her mind to throw her career away just as it had begun to take off, but she stuck to her guns. Misty didn’t need to remind him that he wouldn’t have been involved anyway, no matter what she did next.

Wade followed her into the room and threw his bag onto one of the beds. Misty ignored him in favor of taking a long bath and easing the ache out of her shoulders. When she came back into the bedroom, he hadn’t moved from where she’d left him.

‘Aren’t you even gonna bother to unpack. There’s dirty laundry in your bag, Wade.’

Over the last few weeks, she’d begun to feel like his mother. With the sexual chemistry between them dead, for her at least, Misty realized they had very little in common. She couldn’t help but worry for him though. She loved him once and even considering all he had done to her, she wanted him to be happy.